With increasing security needs, the use of video cameras in various types of surveillance is becoming increasingly important. Video surveillance is typically a part of many aspects of most businesses. However, due to the variety of camera types on the market, a “surveillance coordination” problem has developed when businesses either merge, or when they out-source video surveillance to third parties. The combining of several types of cameras has made centralized surveillance a complicated and costly operation to setup.
This is because typically, network-based video camera operations link a camera type (make and model) with a special-purpose remote access, manipulation and monitoring control system developed specifically for that camera type. The IP camera control system generally comprises a client application developed for a particular user device. The client application is also generally created specifically for that particular camera.
A conceptual model of a prior art network video application is shown in FIG. 1. In the figure, a client application 1 is created specifically for a particular type of camera 2; Type A, of which there are two cameras 2A and 2B being utilized as part of a surveillance system covering two different locations. That application permits the user to request access to either or both cameras, operate them, for example to pan or zoom the view, and receive content from them, for example, in the form of video images. If additional but different type cameras, for example Type B, shown as 4A and 4B, are to be added into the system, a completely new application 3 would have to be written to support the new units. While this would increase the surveillance capacity of the overall system, neither of the applications would be able to communicate with the other's cameras, an inefficient and undesirable effect.
As shown above, adding a new camera type to an existing surveillance system is cumbersome. Combining several diverse monitoring operations into a single, seamless surveillance system, as might be required during a merger of two companies, would increase the difficulty many times over. The consolidation of a group of systems would be very time consuming and potentially very costly for system managers. Therefore, there is clearly a need for improvement in methods for integrating diverse camera operation systems.